Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re Block 102 – Tozier Track trade with Anchorage Community Development Authority (ACDA)

We did get it noticed and it was sent out. And I think he sent out in this very tiny blip of time where the all-assembly email address was not working. And so if you look at the invite, everybody's on there, but a number of members, including myself, didn't actually get the invite. So I know, uh, Ms. Scout was affected by that.

I know there's a couple other people traveling. So just to say, uh, sorry about that, but it is recorded. Um, and then I'll also note, um, that this item is, uh, the, the introduction of this item is on the addendum. So I imagine folks will talk about that, but just to note, uh, again, for members who are listening to this after the fact, um, so other opportunities to ask questions there. So we'll go through member introductions, we'll get into our business.

George Martinez. Erin Baldwin Day. Daniel Bowman. Anna Brawley. And on the phone we have Member Silvers.

Here, thank you. And, uh, Member Gerker. Yes, here. And any other members we're missing?

OK, and then we're also joined at the table, so we have Assembly Council, Clerk, Legislative Services, number of folks who will introduce themselves from the administration and different agencies, a person from HFC, and a number of folks in the back. So I'll just ask, as you guys present, we have our slideshow up there, just make sure to note yourself for the record the first time you speak. Thank you.

Turn it to Mr. Dole. Go ahead. Good afternoon, Bob Dole, Director of Community and Economic Development for the Municipality of Anchorage. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this item that is on the addendum coming up with, uh, shortly. With me to my right, I have Tiffany Briggs, who's the Director of Real Estate and the HLB for the Municipality of Anchorage.

To her right is Mike Robbins, the Executive Director of Anchorage Community Development Authority. And to his right, skipping a chair, is Danielle Delfino from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. We brought a group up here because This is a multi— this is somewhat complex in terms of basically 4 different entities involved, but really it comes down to a simple idea of bringing more housing to Anchorage and addressing 2 lots that are currently not being exercised in the process. I'll be followed by Mike, who will be giving a kind of a presentation overview. Would just like to emphasize at the front end now, we are here with an item pending before the body for the swap of these two parcels.

We are not here for changing the comp plan. We are not here for rezoning. We are not here to approve a development agreement or a lot of other things that will be sussed out before you see a single shovel full of dirt moved on these properties. This is the big— this is the first step, though, in terms of posturing these properties for development in a better alignment than they have right now. And with that, I'll be followed by Mr. Robbins.

Thank you, Mr. Dole. Go ahead, Chair. Thanks very much for an opportunity to talk to you again. So I just want to— I do want to reiterate that, as Bob said, we're here to talk about the exchange of two viable parcels in the municipality that we can activate and to use to help us with our housing needs. The idea is pretty simple.

We want to move these properties to the agencies that are sort of best suited to help us get them developed for housing. I'm going to keep my presentation pretty brief so that we can get into questions because I guess there's probably no questions at all.

So this is the beginning of the process. This is not the end. The first step for us to be able to finish negotiations, to finish arranging for this, the development agreements, as Bob said, that this is— we need your support to be able to do that. Doesn't make any sense at all for us to move forward in any discussions or talks without having Assembly support for the— for affecting a trade. If this will allow us to complete our due diligence, finalize all our terms and conditions, and move the exchange forward to execution.

So you are in control of allowing us to continue that work. I want to talk next about mission alignment because I think that's important. We're trying to align these public assets for public purpose. ACDA's mission, as we talked about a little bit earlier, was to serve as a catalyst, which is why we're here. That's why we're talking and stirring the, stirring the drink on this one.

HFC's mission is to provide Alaskans with access to safe and affordable housing, and HLB, of course, is to benefit future residents, promote orderly development, and to achieve the goals of the comprehensive plan. So this work aligns with our public interest, our public assets, and we're trying to keep each agency sort of in its lane and operating in the direction that intended. So the Block 102 former Tozier tract presents a two-for-one housing opportunity. Of course, these are just illustrations of what the— what they look like, but it's an opportunity for us to develop housing in two critical areas: one in Midtown, which is, as we know, has a badly needed housing demands, and then downtown, where we have an opportunity to provide some badly needed mixed-use and workforce housing. Tosar Track is located on Tudor next to— I'm not going to spend a lot of time, I guess, describing where they are because you probably all know them really well.

It's located downtown, and the idea here is for us to exchange these two properties. And each property won't be developed identically because they're different parcels and they're in different places, but the result is that we're going to We hope to unlock two housing opportunities in Anchorage, as I said, one in downtown and one in Midtown, where we, we have badly needed demand for housing.